Theme I - Specific Housing Problems in Relation to Housing Policy in the Socialist Countries of Eastern Europe

Abstract

This chapter discusses the housing problems in relation to housing policy in the socialist countries of the Eastern Europe. The socio–economic development of the Eastern European countries requires an increasing number of specialists with higher education. The way to university is open to the young, who are encouraged to study by the existence of free education and the extensive grant system. The majority of the young people drawn to university centers leave their family homes to live independently on campus. Financial independence increases the degree to which young people are separated from their family background and, thereby, shortens the intervals before marriage and the founding of a family. The old three-generation families are being broken up. Young people's housing requirements differ temporarily from those of large families. An ordinary apartment is capable of meeting the housing needs of persons belonging to a special population group in certain specific circumstances, as, for example, when elderly people or couples live with their children's families, where they are provided for and receive the medical attention they require, or when young people work or study far from their place of permanent residence but are able to share the apartment of relatives.